Wikipedia:Abuse response/Guide to abuse response

When extensive vandalism comes from an IP address, sometimes the approach is to contact the systems administrator of that IP directly to inform them of the problem. This approach works best for IPs belonging to organizations that have a high likelihood of responding to abuse complaints, such as schools and government agencies.

This is a last resort, NOT something to do after a brief, small spate of vandalism. This is only for when there is an established trend of vandalism from an IP that can't be dealt with without larger repercussions, such as blocking a massive range of IPs. If there have been multiple blocks and warnings with an indefinite block determined to be inappropriate and the vandalism resumes after block expiry, then this the right location.

How you can help
If you want to help the Abuse project, there are several different ways:
 * You can pre-process reports:
 * mark cases as preliminarily approved using ARPrelim in the "Case log" area of the case page if the case meets filing criteria (see below).
 * reject cases by placing, where # is the number for a common reject reason (see Template:ARA for more information) then change status to "Rejected" on the top of the case.
 * You can investigate cases (see below).
 * You can make contact on cases which have already been investigation but are awaiting contact (see below).

Filing criteria
The criteria for filing an abuse report:
 * The IP must have been blocked a minimum of FIVE times
 * There must be current and ongoing abuse from the IP
 * There must be a block within the last year

A report will be considered stale, and may be rejected if:
 * The IP has had no activity in the past five months AND
 * The IP is not subject to a current block

Userbox
Project members can display this userbox on their userpage(s):

Wikipedia:Abuse response/UserBox